a certain competition website that I will not mention sells video stock items depending on resolution starting from 15 $ to 100 $ or more. On videohive you can get a full HD video item for 6 $ to 10 $

the same competition website ask for 30, 40 or 100$ or more for a vector image. On graphicriver you can get the same quality for 2, 4 or 6$

you need a photo? you can pay around 70$ or even more for the high resolution version of a photo on the same competition website or get same quality photos from photodune for max 7 – 10 $

So what are we talking about?

On what marketplace you will find a theme that cost 8$ and get a 2$ discount on every item if you deposit minimum 20$? Did envato will take your 20$ give you a 6$ theme and then you lose the rest of 14$? Or you can use those 14$ to purchase other items each one of them with a 2$ discount?

doru, it is not about fairness of pricing. And you should consider more than photos and videos as the marketplaces are dealing a lot about themes and plugins (and few more) which requires intense time and effort from buyers while searching (from external resources – and reach here later). The purchase restrictions and add-on cost can impact a long way for certain percentage of buyers and their time – it is all about opening door for buyer flexibility – fairness of price doesn’t related. I am talking about “new buyers” to the marketplace.

It is obvious that if surcharge reduced to $1 or a value too fractional to consider, we can avoid lot of moaning from new buyers. Probably make them return in the future too without problems paying surcharge for each purchase. At present, major part of surcharge goes just inside author’s pocket – no meaning.

you are absolutely right on the usability of the website and is why we are constantly asking for different features on the forums

My only point is that the prices are very low if we compare with the competition so this 2$ surcharge or better said 2$ discount is not the issue.

the question posted by the OP was why he need to pay 2$ more for a 6$ item.

the answer is simple and I don’t understand why many experienced people on the marketplace don’t know the answer:

all items have a discount of 2$ if you deposit a minimum of 20$.

as you correctly said the author gets a percentage of the 2$ amount, fact that will not make us evil but proves my point. 2$ is not a fee. 2$ is a discount for those who chose to deposit a certain amount of money. And is someone make a deposit then this means more sales, so envato decided to reward those buyers with a 2$ discount on every item.

there is nothing evil in offering a 2$ discount for each item with the only condition of depositing a certain amount. Is an offer as many discount offers out there.

then as you correctly pointed out, we need to constantly ask for improvements for the marketplace, to make the life easier for the buyers, authors and the company.

What most of you are not grasping is that there is a reason for the $2 fee on items

The reason is that Envato do not want to pay paypal fees etc of 34 cents and 3%, so when buying an item envato would need to pay upto 70% for the author, 34 cents plus 3% for the payment fees and sometimes referral cost.

On a 2 doller item this would basically mean that envato would make a loss.

So the way to look at it is:

Envato are actually rewarding loyal regular customers by saying they will pay the $2 fee if you show you are are loyal customer by paying for points.

Personally if a buyer comes only ever wants 1 item which is only $2, I think they should have to pay the paypal, moneybooker fees.

^ I couldn’t understand about the fact that why authors receive 50-70% cut from that $2 too. Instead of sending it to author, Envato can just charge less enough from buyer – to improve consistency in price.

VF said
^ I couldn’t understand about the fact that why authors receive 50-70% cut from that $2 too. Instead of sending it to author, Envato can just charge less enough from buyer – to improve consistency in price.

50-70% to authors, For instance you get 70% of all sales because you are an elite author.

Putting down the costs would only effect the authors? or am i missing something.

In my opinion, a lot of item categories are already under prices as is.

Take the psd section.

Only 8-10 dollers work for world class designs?

Psd designs as good as some of these would cost about $2000-$4000 on the high street.

I know that $10 dollers in a lot of countries is a lot, but in a lot of countries in Europe, America etc… $10 is not a lot.

doru said
a certain competition website that I will not mention sells video stock items depending on resolution starting from 15 $ to 100 $ or more. On videohive you can get a full HD video item for 6 $ to 10 $

the same competition website ask for 30, 40 or 100$ or more for a vector image. On graphicriver you can get the same quality for 2, 4 or 6$

you need a photo? you can pay around 70$ or even more for the high resolution version of a photo on the same competition website or get same quality photos from photodune for max 7 – 10 $

So what are we talking about?

On what marketplace you will find a theme that cost 8$ and get a 2$ discount on every item if you deposit minimum 20$? Did envato will take your 20$ give you a 6$ theme and then you lose the rest of 14$? Or you can use those 14$ to purchase other items each one of them with a 2$ discount?

+1000

Also note that we offer support with our items, which makes the items even cheaper in value.

Some of the other major websites do not offer this, i know because i am a author on them.